


I’ll Hide It Well, Hope You Can’t Tell.

by wantittobeyouandiforever



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M, angst man lots of fucking angst, harry and louis are dbs as usual but they'll figure it out wait and see, i will update tags as i post chaps btwwww
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-11
Updated: 2014-04-11
Packaged: 2018-01-18 23:20:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1446550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wantittobeyouandiforever/pseuds/wantittobeyouandiforever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis all attended the same high school: Hayfield. It’s 5 years down the track and Zayn, Liam, and Louis are back for their first high school reunion, none of them having seen each other since all those years ago. Niall and Harry, having just graduated from the school that year themselves are acting as servers in a last service to the school.</p><p>Maybe a trip back to the school was what was best for all of them.</p><p>Title from Perfume by Britney Spears, trust me, it will make sense in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I’ll Hide It Well, Hope You Can’t Tell.

L  
Louis is screwing around with his hair as per usual, grunting in frustration as it refuses to obey the copious amounts of hairspray he’s plastered on in the last 5 minutes. His contacts are searing in his eyes as he feels tears threatening to come up as they have been all day. He takes a deep breath, sighing and letting his hair flop down into the usual messy fringe he adorns daily, glancing upwards before feeling the tears slide back from his eyes. 

Get a grip, Tomlinson. He thinks as he pulls on his jacket to walk out the door. It’s been 5 years since you’ve seen any of these people, they won’t even remember your name. 

He pulls into the car park with 5 minutes to spare, so turns off the engine and begins to mentally psych himself up for the awkward few hours of small talk he is about to endure. As he glances around, he notices the buildings where he took his classes, sang in the school mass, even had his first kiss. The memories are distant and dusty in Louis’ brain, but seeing the school that was home to him for so long brings them back clear as anything. Glancing at his watch, and realising he can no longer stall from entering as cars begin to pull in around him, he takes one last deep breath before opening his car door and striding towards the main hall. 

H  
Harry shifts about awkwardly on his feet, fiddling with the strings on his serving apron as the first of the alumni begin to trickle into the hall. Cursing his mum for signing him up for this event, a way of saying “a last goodbye” to his schooling she said fondly as she sent her final child to his final school function, he plasters a fake smile on his face stepping out of the kitchen to offer champagne to the returning students. 

He meanders about for a while, greeting guests and welcoming them back to the school. Everybody seems to smirk at him, remembering their own school days Harry supposes, the stupid things one has to do when they’re part of their school community. He thanks the God above that this is the last time he’ll have to be a part of one of these events, aching for the time when he can come into this hall with a smirk creeping onto his own face as he watches the next round of kids performing these pointless tasks knowing he’ll never have to do it again either. He is so lost in his own thoughts as he wanders that he doesn’t have a second to react when he stumbles, the tray falling from his fingers and smashing onto the ground with champagne spilling all over one of the guests.

Fuck he thinks as he surveys the broken glass all over the floor, before turning his eyes back up to the soaked guest who wears a less than impressed expression. Harry can’t help but hold back a snort as he takes in the look on the man’s face before clapping his hand to his mouth praying the rest of the crowd hasn’t noticed his amusement. 

“Sorry mate, I- I er- guess I wasn’t really concentrating.” He smiles nervously. “Fucking hell, what a start to night aye?” The man says nothing, his mouth not even twitching into some sort of a polite smile.  
“Listen, if you want to come back to the kitchen, we can get you cleaned up? I really am sorry.”

They dart back to the kitchen as Harry motions to Niall get someone to clean this up NOW. Niall smirks and gives a quiet salute, gathering up the shards of glass with the other members of Harry’s class. 

“I don’t know what happened back there mate, y’alright?” Harry asks as the man takes a seat before him on the pristine white bench. 

“Perfectly. Don’t worry, could happen to anyone.” The man replies, a smile finally appearing on his lips. “I’m Louis by the way, Louis Tomlinson.” 

“Hey, I remember you! You were in the school production of Grease the year you finished! You were absolutely wicked as Danny.” Harry seems to become caught up in his own excitement before remembering why it is Louis is sitting before him in the kitchen.  
He coughs awkwardly before grabbing Louis a towel to clean himself off with, preparing to make his way back to the party and give Louis some time alone. Before he can make it though, he sees Louis’ mouth open and close as if he were about to say something, but he doesn’t.

“Something I can help you with?” Harry enquires as he meets Louis’ eyes, which he realises at this moment, are the most incredible shade of piercing blue.

“Not particularly, I was just- er- wondering if maybe you would hang back here with me a bit longer? To be honest I was a tad glad when you spilled that champagne on me, I wasn’t relishing the thought of speaking to any of my old classmates tonight.”

Harry smiles back at him, “Sure. I’m sure they can manage a while without me.”

Harry and Louis end up sitting in the kitchen for the remainder of the evening, joking and laughing about anything and everything. Louis shares his stories of his own mishaps in school, Harry having trouble breathing when Louis tells him about the time he hung a pair of the priest’s knickers on the altar before Christmas mass. Niall stumbles into the kitchen as Harry wipes the tears of laughter from his eyes, his hands filled with trays of hors d’oeuvres that he promptly drops onto the nearest bench. 

“Christ Harry, there you are. Haven’t seen you all evening.” He exclaims in his thick Irish accent. 

Harry glances at his watch, realising he and Louis have been in the kitchen for just over four hours. “Shit Niall, I’m really sorry. Guess we lost track of the time aye Louis?” 

Louis smiles apologetically, “Sorry mate. I’m Louis by the way, like Harry said.”

“Niall.” Niall replies, shrugging, “’snot a big deal, we managed without you anyway.” He elbows Harry in the ribs.

“Look, I do feel terrible about keeping you all evening though. Did you lads want to go down the pub now or summat? I’ll shout you a round,” Louis says. 

Harry and Niall glance at each other before nodding back at Louis.

“Great,” Louis says, “Meet me outside the hall in a mo when you’re done here.”

L

Louis is having a small panic attack as he emerges from the hall. He waits anxiously at the entrance for Niall and Harry. 

Admittedly, he knows the reason he invited them to the pub. Harry is fit. His legs stretch on for years, only complimented by his broad shoulders that slim down into his clearly sculpted torso, which, Louis remarks interestedly, show the hint of tattoos covering his upper body through his white shirt. 

What Louis can’t stop seeing though, are Harry’s eyes. The most intriguing shade of emerald green, Louis felt as though in every second he could see into this beautiful boy’s mind. Every tug of his pink lips on his pale white skin, the crinkles around his eyes, his teeth flashing as he howled with laughter at stories of Louis’ schoolboy days. Louis realises he is absent-mindedly smiling as he rakes over these details in his mind, and promptly shuts down these thoughts, getting out his phone and pretending as if he is doing something very important just as Harry and Niall exit the building.

Harry sidles up to Louis with a smile on his face, “You look like you’re enjoying yourself already. Texting someone special?”  
Louis falters for a moment before responding, “Oh no. Just saw something on Facebook. Come on boys, I know a good place just round the corner. You boys drive here?”

“Nah.” Niall responds, Louis almost having forgotten he was there as he was so busy staring at Harry.

“Alright, well we can take my car and I’ll just leave it by the pub and pick it up tomorrow.” Louis smiles, ushering the boys towards the parking lot.

 

A few hours pass and Louis is wildly consumed by the heat and alcohol, so much so he’s having a hard time seeing straight. Starting off at the local pub, the boys have somehow ended up in one of the city’s busiest nightclubs. To Louis it is nought but an explosion of strobe lights and house music invading all of his senses.

Niall and Harry are on the dance floor somewhere while Louis is collapsed in a booth they claimed upon entering the club, where he’s been since they entered the club, sucking down drink after drink. 

Fuck I’m so drunk. Louis thinks to himself as he tries to make sense of the noise and lights surrounding him.

Somehow Louis’ plan to drown his attraction for Harry with alcohol has backfired. As he spots Harry moving his hips to a remix of Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl, he is so consumed with want he can’t stop a small moan from audibly escaping his lips. Harry is absolute perfection, his hips grinding in perfect time to the beat, each long limb feeling the music as it plays. 

Louis can’t stop himself from emerging from the booth to saunter over to Harry, wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist and whispering in his ear, “You look amazing when you dance.”

Harry freezes before turning his head and realising it is Louis, his face breaking into a cheeky smile showing his dimples, citing the lyrics to the song, “This was never the way I planned, not my intention.”

Louis snorts at the reference but continues to dance with Harry, thankful that the alcohol in his system is blurring out the cascade of thoughts bombarding his mind telling him to move away NOW. Eventually, when the remix finally ends, Louis decides he definitely needs another drink and asks Harry if he and Niall could do with one.

Harry smirks, “I think Niall’s all set for the night mate.” He points to Niall who is pinning a blonde girl against a wall seemingly doing much more than kissing her.

Louis laughs, but is really imagining himself and Harry in the exact same situation. He tries desperately to shake the thought out of his mind as his pants tighten just a bit too noticeably for his liking. Harry tells him he wouldn’t mind another drink to which he nods shakily and makes his way over to the bar, relieved to have a moment to “calm himself down” so to speak.

After ordering two more vodka cranberrys, biggest chick drink, Louis thinks, he picks them up to stumble back over to Harry.

He freezes as he catches sight of Harry on the dance floor with someone, a girl. A new song has begun to play and the two of them look very, very cosy. Harry is grinding his hips against her the same way he did Louis, her arms tangling into his curls as they move to the beat of the music. Louis is filled with a searing burn of rage and jealousy and, instead of approaching Harry, he makes his way back to the booth. 

It’s not like you’ve got a right to be frustrated Tomlinson he tells himself, Harry never mentioned he was interested in you. It’s your fault for assuming the dancing meant something more.

Louis feels astonishingly humiliated, making an idiot of himself this way over an 18-year-old boy. He makes to grab his things and leave but stops. If Harry can pick someone up in this club, so can he. He sees two fit looking boys sitting in the booth that was once theirs and decides to sit down anyway. They’re both so out of it they won’t even notice Louis figures.

“Louis Tomlinson?” One of them screeches over the deafening music.

“The very same. Do I know you?” Louis replies a little more coldly than he would have liked to, but he can’t stop picturing Harry with that dirty brunette.

“It’s me, Liam. Liam Payne? And this is Zayn Malik. From your class at Hayfield remember? We played football together.”

Louis doesn’t really remember, but this seems the perfect way to make a connection. “Sure I do, how’re you going lads?” 

“Alright, yourself mate?” the one called Zayn replies. “Didn’t catch you at the reunion tonight.”

“I had, er, a bit of an accident with one of the waiters. Ended up spending most of the night in the kitchen with him. He’s here now actually. Harry, Harry Styles.”

“Getting in there with the youngens eh mate?” Liam asks, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

A pang hits Louis in the chest, “Nah, just seemed like a good guy, thought I could take him out after monopolising him for most of the night.”

“So you’re single tonight then?” Zayn asks.

“Sure am.” Louis says, thinking sarcastically How unusual. “You lads up for a dance?”

Liam and Zayn both nod their approval, so the three of them make their way onto the dance floor, where, Louis notices, Harry and the brunette are nowhere to be seen. 

Another wave of rage washes over Louis as he begins to dance, Liam and Zayn on either side of him. Their sweaty bodies press together, and before Louis knows it, they’re grinding up on either side of him. Too pissed to say no, and too mad at Harry in any case, Louis pushes his body periodically back and forth between the two of them. 

Louis doesn’t notice Harry on the edge of the dance floor until he is wrapped in Liam’s embrace, their lips crashing together hotly, their tongues sniping back and forth roughly between each other’s mouths. When he does notice, Harry is looking at him with something in his eyes that Louis can’t quite describe. Hurt? How could he be hurt when Louis just caught him with somebody else, a girl at that?

It doesn’t stop a crushing feeling in Louis’ gut as he realises Harry must have seen him getting just as intimate with Zayn only a few moments ago. But there’s really nothing he can do about it now. Harry slams the drinks he had clearly bought for himself and Louis down at their old table and storms towards the entrance of the club, oddly in the very same position Louis had been only a half hour ago. Louis leans forward to kiss Liam again and that’s how the night ends as far as he can remember.

 

Louis opens his eyes tentatively when he wakes, squinting as the bright sunlight starts the dull throbbing in his head nicely complimenting the bitter taste of alcohol and cigarettes in his mouth.  
He freezes when he glances around at the room he is in, a very minimalist studio with large windows spanning the surrounding walls. Partitions are the only things separating the various areas. 

A snore erupts on Louis’ left almost making him jump out of his skin before turning to investigate. Glancing down he sees the boys from last night, Liam and Zayn he remembers. 

It’s 10.30 when Louis checks his watch, and he decides he’ll take a shower before leaving whoever’s apartment he’s in. He shucks his clothes from the previous night, leaving them in a pile on the bathroom floor as he realises he’ll have to change into them again after. As the hot water cascades down his body, Louis begins to remember the events of last night. Going down to drinks at the pub. Talking animatedly about football with Harry. Yelling at the match on TV with Harry. His arms slung lazily around Harry in the drunken haze of a cab. Dancing in the club with Harry. Catching Harry with a girl. Harry catching him with Liam and Zayn. 

Frustration grips Louis as he continues to shower. He aggressively turns off the taps and roughly pulls back on his clothes. He doesn’t know why, by all means he should leave Harry in the memory of that night and never speak to him again, but for some reason Louis wants to straighten things out with the boy.

Only one problem, Louis doesn’t have his phone number.

H

Harry wakes in a similar state, his head pounding from the atrocious amount of alcohol he consumed only hours ago. Thankfully he remembered to draw the curtains in his drunkenness meaning he has a chance to put on his trademark ‘hangover’ sunglasses that will stay on all day until he can move without feeling a sharp pain in his temple. 

As he thrusts open the curtains, he is confronted with the site of a lean brunette girl still tangled in the sheets of his bed. Kendall he grimaces as he remembers bumping into her last night. 

It was a little after Louis had gone to buy them drinks. They hadn’t seen each other since the previous summer. Stupidly, drunkenly might I add Harry thinks, he had let himself begin dancing with Kendall. It had been a while before Harry noticed that Louis was nowhere to be seen. He had told Kendall he was going to look for him and he would only be a minute but she insisted on coming, clinging to him like the pesky little insect she is. Harry had frozen as he saw Louis practically devouring two boys who he recognised from the reunion. 

His anger had obviously been such that he didn’t protest when Kendall stumbled into the cab with him, nor when she kissed every inch of him hungrily the second they got through his bedroom door. The touches had meant nothing to Harry though. Sure, they had both gotten off, but for Harry, there was no thrill, no excitement, it had purely been a physical reaction.

Groaning and frustrated, he shoves Kendall to wake her up.  
“Get dressed and be gone in 5 minutes. I’ve got something I need to do.”  
“Oh… um ok. I was thinking, last night was fun… maybe we could talk—“  
“Don’t Kendall, just don’t. I can’t handle this right now. If you still want to talk tomorrow, we’ll talk. Ok?”

Kendall shrugs looking a little hurt, not that Harry cares. She turns to put her clothes on as Harry walks abruptly out of the room and down the stairs.

 

L

“So you see my dilemma?” Louis groans as he slumps down with his coffee in the quaint bookstore/café just on the corner of Liam’s block. The room is one of those amazing treasure troves you rarely find anymore, books lining the entire room, the cases rising until they hit the ceiling. Tables are scattered haphazardly, giving the place a true homey feel. 

Louis doesn’t feel a bit self-conscious burdening Liam and Zayn with his new problem; despite the fact they hooked up only hours ago. Neither of them seems to have a problem discussing it either, so Louis rambled on from the moment they both woke. 

Zayn pats Louis on the shoulder, “I do mate. I really do. But, well, it’s like you said… Harry didn’t promise you anything did he? Go after him if you want to, but giving my most honest opinion, I think you might end up disappointed.”

Liam scoffs as he nibbles at the giant muffin he ordered, “Don’t listen to a word the old cynic over here spouts. He gave up on love a long time ago.”  
Zayn pouts at this but Liam continues, “If you really think there’s something there then just go for it. What have you got to lose?”

Louis smiles but there’s a million thoughts racing through his head. What could wrong? Oh I don’t know, just about everything. Although he feels comfortable discussing this situation with Liam and Zayn, he doesn’t know them quite well enough yet to diverge his personal history which is making his conquest of Harry appear just about the worst idea he’s ever had. 

“I just -- I don’t know. And besides, I told you guys already, I don’t even have his number to call him. Not even if I wanted to.”

Liam’s face splits into a sly grin, “If not having his number is your excuse then you like him more than I thought. The town’s not that big Louis, you’re bound to bump into him again, probably sooner than you think.”

“I suppose so.” Louis replies, “Anyhow, I’d better get a move on lads, you know, places to go, people to see, all that.”

Zayn snorts but nods, and they all exchange numbers before Louis exits the coffee shop to make his way home.

H

Harry crashes onto his bed, frustrated as ever. Not only did he fail to find Louis, or anyone who knew Louis for that matter, he had had to put up with Kendall for a further hour that morning as his parents had been only too thrilled to see her and insisted she stay for breakfast. Robin had patted him on the back as she was leaving, whispering, “Glad to see you came to your senses and are back on the winning team. None of that unpleasant nonsense you spouted to us last summer after things ended with her.”  
Harry had been seething with rage, but knew it best not to disagree with his stepfather so forced a smile before quickly making his way out the door and into town.  
He had searched high and low for Louis, though admittedly had already known it was a mission probably doomed to failure. 

There was a connection between him and Louis, he just knew it, had felt it the entire evening they had spent together in the school’s kitchen. There hadn’t been a single awkward beat between them and for Harry Styles, well that was definitely new. Sure he had always had plenty of friends, but his quirkiness tended to make for uncomfortable silences and false laughs. With Louis, everything had been easy.  
And sure, it probably had something to do with the fact that Louis was the finest boy Harry had seen yet, the little crinkles by his eyes when he smiled, his habit of constantly toying with his fringe. But it was more than that.  
Harry couldn’t bear the thought of letting that go.  
With thoughts of this beautiful piercing blue-eyed boy running through his brain, Harry lets his exhaustion from the night before pull him under.

“HARRY!”  
Harry is startled out of his sleep to a shout from downstairs, no doubt coming from Robin.  
Grunting, he rolls out of bed and slips on a pair of sweats, trudging out the door and down the stairs.  
When he reaches the kitchen, it is to a sight he most certainly wasn’t expecting to see. There sits Kendall along with Robin and Anne, all preparing to serve themselves dinner.  
“Kendall? What are you doing here?” Harry asks, somewhat rudely he supposes.  
“Harry!” Robin smacks him on the back of the head, “We called and invited Kendall to join us, we were simply thrilled to see the two of you together again!”  
Harry glares at his stepfather, receiving only a sheepish smile from his mother who is yet to say a word.  
He sits stiffly and begins to serve himself some of the roast dinner Anne has prepared, pointedly avoiding eye contact with Kendall.  
They eat silently, until nothing but the sound of knives and forks scraping plates can be heard.  
“That was lovely thank you Anne.” Kendall says, the first to break the silence.  
“It was, delicious dinner mum.” Harry chirps in, “may I be excused from the table? I’d really just like to go back to bed.”  
“Don’t be silly Harry” Robin retorts, “You have a guest here. You’re being very rude.”  
“Well I didn’t exactly know she was coming now did I?” Harry quips back.  
“You two can go watch a movie upstairs,” Robin growls threateningly. When neither of them moves, he barks, “Well go on then!”  
Frustrated, Harry all but throws his plate in the sink and storms out of the room in a huff, Kendall arranging hers neatly and thanking Anne again before following.  
“What do you want to watch?” Harry snaps at her.  
“Look Harry, if you really don’t want me to be here, I’ll just go.” She says, looking anywhere but his eyes.  
Harry laughs darkly, “You know Robin won’t have a bar of it. Why are you even here Kendall? You know where I stand; I was totally honest with you last summer. I’m sorry if you think one night changes anything but it really doesn’t. I’m gay.”  
“You didn’t seem so gay last night when you were –“  
“Don’t. That isn’t fair Kendall. You know as well as I do how drunk we both were.” Not to mention how a certain blue-eyed boy fuelled his lust, “Hell, it could have been anyone.”  
Hurt flashes across Kendall’s face, “Anyone? Wow Harry, you sure know how to make a girl feel special.”  
“I’m sorry Kendall but at this point I just think it’s best to be honest.”  
“Well you’ve made your point Harry. But like you said, it’s unlikely that Robin will let me out of here, so shouldn’t we just make the best of it and watch a film?”  
“I suppose.” Harry grumbles. 

Some part of him, deep down, does genuinely feel bad for what he did to Kendall. Coming out, even just to himself, had been one of the hardest things he had ever had to do, and the fact that Kendall had gotten hurt along the way, well that had hurt too. Harry never liked to make anyone upset. Her aggressive reaction, however, that had changed his feelings of sympathy. He knew she would be hurt but her vindictive and nasty attitude after their break up had made him glad to have ended things. Even if he had been straight, he didn’t want to be involved with someone who was so vicious and vengeful when something didn’t go their way.  
And now, she shows up a year later, all smiles as if their split had been mutual and without difficulties.  
She had no idea just how many difficulties this was going to cause with Robin. Harry had endured so much from his stepfather following his revelation; he had the bruises to prove it. Just thinking back to it now, he can feel the dull ache in his temple as Robin – No. Don’t go back to that place Harry Harry tells himself as he settles down on the couch after popping in Love Actually, arguably one of the best movie of all time Harry thinks, followed closely by Titanic of course.  
A soppy romantic movie is just what Harry needs right now. It will take his mind off things.  
Him and Kendall sit on opposite ends of the couch, not a word spoken between them the entire movie.  
The credits roll and Kendall stands awkwardly, signalling her intent to go.  
Harry merely nods and waves jerkily.

Not two minutes later he is sitting in his room when Robin bursts in.  
“What do you think you are doing Harry? You’ve got a beautiful girl here and you’re going to let her leave?”  
“We’re just friends. There’s no reason for her to stay.” Harry replies shortly.  
“Didn’t sound like friends just last night Harry.”  
Harry winces internally as he thinks of how loud they must have been in their drunkenness for Anne and Robin to hear them all the way from their bedroom on the lower floor.  
“And I suggest you keep things going the way they were last night. Kendall is the best thing that ever happened to you, you’d be a fool to let her go.” Robin finishes.  
“I don’t want– ” Harry tries but is cut off as Robin says, “Wonderful then, I’ll send her up.”

Kendall wanders into his room sheepishly a minute later, the lights already turned off.  
“I’m sorry Harry. I tried to go, I really did.”  
“’Sfine. Just go to sleep.”  
“Sure. Goodnight Harry.”  
“Goodnight Kendall.”

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this was first chap to establish h/l meeting and all the boys reuniting in some such way. there's way more larry scenes but i have to fix them up so let me know if you guys actually like and i will post weekly if so!! it's majorly angst atm bc who doesn't love a good bit of angst?? gimme your feedback on tumblr @ wantedtobeyouandiforever :) thaaaaank


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